Yesterday I was looking at a map of the area from 1946 which shows where bombs landed and the extent of damage to buildings.

On this map is shown a railway that used to run to the north of the Horniman Gardens, just south of WoodVale and through where Brenchley gardens is now.

There used to be a station opposite the Cemetary there called 'Honor Oak' which is probably why the buses still say that - they (a long time ago) used to serve that station.

This line looks as though it used to go to London Bridge too. Anyone know what happened/when it was taken out of service and removed?

From where I live, this would have been a most handy station and would have saved the walk up AND down the hill each way. But its gone now. And Boris wonders why the capital relies on their cars so much. Public transport is not 'getting better'!!

The disused Nunhead to Crystal Palace line (which the advertised walk on 31st Jan 2009 probably follows) ...
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stati...ndex.shtml

Learn something new everyday

Thanks for making my afternoon an interesting one.

According to the info on the Disused Stations site, the last electric train ran on this line in September 1954 and the daily freight ceased to run at the same time. This puzzles me slightly...

I was born in May 1954 and as a child I lived in Honor Oak Road. My mum used to take me to Hornimans Park on sunny afternoons and while visiting the park I distinctly recall seeing the odd steam train (not electric) running along the track embankment at the bottom of the park.

But I would have been only a few months old when the last train apparently ran and at most around two years old when the track was dismantled during 1956/57.

Being somewhat puzzled I've double checked with my mum who confirms that she remembers pointing out the steam trains to me when in the park before the line was dismantled - so what trains did I see?

I can only think that an occasional steam train was sent up or down the line during 1956/57 as part of the line/trackside dismantling process and that they were used to carry away the scrap. Certainly, I can remember the removal of the bridges across Forest Hill road and at the top of Lordship Lane, near the end of Wood Vale.

It's times like this that I wish I knew of someone who worked on the dismantling of the line... Anyone out there?!!!

I likewise remember just the lovely steam locos on that line. Indeed there are some great historic pictures of the line.

The line was a branch from the present-day Nunhead station to an impressive terminus at Crystal Palace High Level, which is now the housing below Crystal Palace Parade. There were intermediate stations at Honor Oak, Lordship Lane, and Upper Sydenham (in Well's Park Road). The line was too late to take full advantage of the Crystal Palace tourist trade, and commuter travel never really took off, given the large areas of the route that remained undeveloped (thanks to Dulwich College, the landowners). The line finally closed in 1954, being replaced by an extension of the 63 bus route from Honor Oak to Crystal Palace. The steam trains were special excursions run to mark the line's closure.

Vestiges of the route still remain - Brenchley Gardens, the footpath at the bottom of the Horniman Gardens, the footbridge in Sydenham Hill Woods (from which Pissaro painted his picture of Lordship Lane station), the tunnel under Sydenham Hill, and the old station house on Well's Park Road. The station at Honor Oak was in Forest Hill Road, where the flats now are opposite Brenchley Gardens.

Hi All

Do anyone know which organisation is doing the walk along the old Nunhead to Crystal Palace high level railway line on Sunday 31st January 2009?.

For more information about the disused railway that ran between Nunhead to Crystal Palace, I have a self guided leaflet available for sale at ?1.50 inc p&p all the money raised from the leaflet goes to London Wildlife Trust (Sydenham Hill Wood project) which a part of the old railway ran through and has one of the two remaining tunnels which is now be converted into a bat hibernation roost for details please contact my email is Sceamingalice@talktalk.net